Glass
by Zephyrbolt
Summary: When sand is put under extreme heat, it turns into glass. But be careful, because if you put too much pressure on the glass, it will snap...destroying the beauty of what it once was. And if you look close enough...in those broken shards, you can see the dreams the glass once had, as little grains of sand.


**Ohhh, I've been wanting to write this for a long time. Hope you enjoy.**

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I. Light of the Fallen

Somewhere in some desolate country, a girl opens her eyes. She was lying in warm sand, and as she props herself up with her arms, she sees that that's all there is: sand. For miles and miles, there was only sand. The girl blinks, a confused look on her face as she glances around, trying to find something other than sand. These efforts are in vain.  
She shrugs, standing up and brushing the sand off of the cloak she was wearing, a cloak the color of blood with gold patterns sewn into it. They were beautiful, complex patterns, and she wondered how she had this piece of clothing. She couldn't sew. At least, she didn't think she could.  
She couldn't remember anything. She couldn't remember her name, if she had one. She couldn't remember why she was in the middle of this desert. Why was she here? She wondered if someone had left her here.  
"Might as well figure out where I am..." she said aloud, even though she was alone in the never-ending desert. She walks around, getting annoyed that there was never a change in the scenery. Nothing but sand. She huffed, blowing black hair out of her face only to have it fall right back where it was.  
A bright light drew the girl's gray eyes like a moth to a flame. Her eyes widened when she saw what got her attention. Thousands of miles away, she could see a mountain. A mountain that looked so beautiful to her, giving off a brilliant light that seemed to call out to her. She shook her head, dismissing such silly thoughts. There was no way a mountain was talking to her, the mountain wasn't really alive.  
...right?  
She turned away, away from the mountain's light, trying to get away from it. It confused her. How could the mountain be talking to her? In only a few seconds, she gave into her curiosity and turned back to the mountain. It couldn't have really been talking. Then again, how was she to know if it wasn't? She didn't know who she was or what this world was. What if this was a world where mountains could talk?  
"What do you want?" She said, feeling silly, talking to the mountain. Impossible as it seemed, there was a little slimmer inside her that told her that the mountain really was speaking to her. It was calling out to her. 'Come to me,' the mountain seemed to say. 'I can give you the answers.'  
She didn't respond to the mountain, but she felt a small sense of deja vu. Like she had been through this conversation before. Had these things happened to her before? Why couldn't she remember? She took a few steps forward, toward the mountain. The cloak she wore covered her hands, but she still held her hand out, reaching, reaching as if the mountain was only a few feet away...  
She tripped, landing flat on her face, but thanks to the sand it was a somewhat soft landing. She propped herself up, blowing sand out of her mouth. She looked back to see what tripped her, and she saw what looked like a little stone peaking out of the ground. Crawling over to the stone, she brushed away some of the sand and found a strange looking pattern inscribed on it. She titled her head in confusion, her eyes narrowing.  
"What is this...?" She said quietly, standing up and brushing herself off again. She looked ahead, seeing more of the same stones, some of them taller than the others, some of them buried. There were so many of them, and they are had a strange symbol on them, but it was never the same. As if the symbol was a name...then she realized. These were graves. Graves, some of them buried by time, some of them fresh. Her gray eyes watered up a bit -she didn't deal with the topic of death very well-, and she wondered who these graves belonged to. Were they people like her? Were they trying to get to the mountain, only to be struck down by the harsh desert?  
She wiped her eyes dry and gave a moment of silence for the fallen.

The girl began a trek in the general direction of the mountain, looking around for any signs of life. She wondered if she was alone in this desert. Where did everyone else go? Had they all died? Is that why there were so many graves around?  
She sniffled, looking up and seeing a little stone altar. At least, it looked like an altar. She walked toward it, narrowing her eyes as she took in the image of some kind of glowing object. It looked like the symbols that were on the graves. She was hesitant to approach it, but it was as if it were calling to her, like the mountain.  
She suddenly heard a shuffling sort of sound. A hopeful grin appeared on her face. Was there an animal out there? Something that was alive? So she wasn't alone after all.  
From behind the altar, a small little group of what looked like red pieces of cloth revealed themselves. There were four of them, and they looked at her even though they didn't have eyes.  
"Hello..." she said in a careful voice, not sure what these creatures were. They didn't make any kind of noise, but she could tell that they were alive. The cloths flew around her, making her cloak twirl, and she laughed. Whatever they were, they were playful, and very curious. She felt herself being pushed, and looked behind herself to see that the cloths were somehow pushing her toward the light. She laughed again, and then she walked toward the light on her own accord.  
The strange light broke apart into little parts, and the parts surrounded her. She looked around at the lights, wondering what was going on. The lights centered behind her, and when she looked to see what the light had done, she saw that the light was gone. In its place, it left a small little scarf, about the size of the curious cloths that flew around her.  
"What's this for?" She asked the cloths, and she half-expected an answer, but they weren't like the mountain. They didn't seem to be able to communicate vocally. They flew around her again, and when they touched her, they gave off the same kind of light, and the light went into the scarf, giving it designs that resembled the strange symbols. She looked at the cloths, who flew up and down in a strange motion that seemed to resemble jumping. They did this over and over until she figured out that they wanted her to jump.  
When she jumped, she gave out a little scream when she didn't touch the floor right after. She was hovering in the air, and the ground seemed so far away. Her eyes were wide with fear, and when she landed, she gave out a sigh of relief.  
"What was that about?" She said to the cloths. Of course they didn't answer her, they only flew behind her and touched her scarf again, filling it back up with the light. She hadn't even noticed that the light had gone away. She wondered if the light went away after a few minutes, but standing there proved her theory false. What else could have caused the light to vanish?  
"Of course!" The light vanished because she had hovered. She could fly, and the light on the scarf was like her power. She could only fly for a short time...but could she make it longer, somehow? Could she fly for longer periods of time? She would just have to wait and find out.

The cloths didn't follow her when she walked away from the altar, and she was a little sad because of this. It had felt nice to have some company. She had flown again, and she only got a few feet ahead of her when the scarf ran out of light and she fell back to the ground.  
She came across a building. Excited, she ran toward it, finding that it seemed to be only half of a building, the rest appeared to have been destroyed. She wandered inside the building, and she came across a mural on the wall, surrounded by what looked like the graves outside. The mural was blank.  
She shrugged and walked a bit closer to the mural, wondering what the story behind it was. She turned to leave, and she saw the mountain again. She tried to look away from the dazzling light, but she couldn't.  
'Sing,' the light said to her.  
"Sing...?" She didn't know any songs, and she didn't know why the mountain wanted her to sing. She sang a single note in a low voice, and she heard something behind her, so she turned to see what it was.  
An image was appearing on the mural.  
Surprised, she stopped singing, and the image stopped growing. It was like the mural was paused, and this surprised and confused her. She started to sing again, and as she expected, the image of the mural began to grow again. When the mural was complete, she stopped singing.  
Figures that looked like her were on the mural, only instead of red, they wore white cloaks. It was a large group, more than ten. They were all facing down, and they seemed to be...buried. The mural seemed to depict people who had died. In some sort of war, perhaps? Or did they die of natural causes?  
Whatever the cause, she was becoming sad again from seeing more and more death. It was like everywhere she looked, there was death. Death everywhere.

The girl had left the empty building, her head hanging low. She stared at her feet, watching them, not really paying attention. And then, there was another light. This light was familiar to her by now, but hope still appeared in her eyes every time. She wanted someone else here with her; she didn't want to be alone.  
What was the point of all of this if she was alone? Even though she couldn't even remember her own name, she got the feeling that whoever she was, she hated being alone.  
She walked toward the lights, drawn to them like always. She liked the lights, but she liked the idea of them leading her to someone even more. She had to climb up a platform to reach this light, but once she did, she got excited again. This light was like the one that the cloths had shown her. She went to it quickly, and just as she predicted, it moved behind her just like the previous one. She could feel the light giving her more energy, more power...even if the scarf didn't get that much longer.  
Still, every little bit helped.  
The girl became excited again when more lights came into her vision. She practically jumped for joy when gates on the platform opened, and out came hundreds of those little red cloths. She was so happy, she could sing.  
So that was what she did. She sang, that same basic note, but it still sounded pretty, to her anyway. The cloths seemed to like it too, as they gathered around her and lifted her out of the air. This surprised her, but at the same time it didn't, as she had decided that it was better not to question things. After all, she still had a lot to learn about this strange world she woke up in.  
With the cloths help, she was able to get two more of those lights, and she was able to make her scarf longer. It actually looked longer this time, too, and when she twirled, she could see it clearly.  
The cloths gathered around her again, nudging her, easing her toward the platform again. Once she had gotten to the top for the second time, they kept nudging her, toward the edge this time. She became worried, but she was also curious, wondering what they wanted her to do.  
Then she saw it. She saw the altar on the other side, an altar giving off such a beautiful white light. It was like the mountain's light...it drew her closer, and she took small steps toward the edge.  
The cloths helped her get across, but she was so entranced by the light that she didn't say a thank you. When she reached the altar, she noticed that there was a figure on it. It looked like the white figures in the mural, only...more mature, somehow. The altar's statuette seemed older, wiser. There were stones around the altar, seeming to form a circle. They reminded the girl of the graves that she saw, and they each had a symbol on them like them too.  
For some reason she got the urge to sing again. So, she did. She sang. It was still just that one single, almost flat note, but it was all she knew how she sing. Perhaps one day she could learn to sing more. But for now, she was stuck with this.  
As she sang, she noticed that the graves lit up. One by one, they reacted to her singing, shining brightly, bright like the sun in the sky. It was then that she realized that for some reason, in this world, if she sang, strange things happened. First, the mural, then the cloths...and now this. What was it about singing?  
What would happen if she sang to the mountain?  
The girl was pulled out of her thoughts when the light manifested underneath her; it looked like a portal almost. She suddenly felt tired, and she wanted to sit. However, once she sat in the circle of light, something happened. The strangest thing to have happened to her before.  
Suddenly, she wasn't in that desert anymore. She...wasn't even sure where she was. It was a world of white, a never ending sea of white, just like the sand. The white light was somewhat comforting to her. She stood up and took a few steps in the direction that she thought was north, but then something grabbed her attention.  
She looked up and saw a towering white figure looming over her. It looked like the statuette on the altar, but this figure...was definitely not a statuette. It was huge. Much larger than her. But for some reason, she wasn't afraid of it. She sensed a calming aura from the figure in white, and she could see wisdom in its eyes. It was very hard to see its eyes, though, it was so large its face seemed miles away from her.  
The figure leaned toward her, and she felt that it was curious about her. Did it wonder who she was?  
"Get in line. So do I," she said without even thinking about it. Her gray eyes widened and she wished she could take it back. She just got the feeling that she shouldn't speak that way. Like...this figure was one to be respected.  
But the figure didn't do anything harsh, like she expected it to do. Instead it...narrowed its eyes a little and tilted its head. It looked...confused. Curious.  
"Do you...want something from me...?" The girl asked in a more hesitant tone. Even if it had let her previous comment slide, she wasn't so sure the same thing would happen again.  
The figure leaned up again, and it faced away from her. Did it...even have a face? She couldn't see one...its cloak covered its face. The air suddenly became tense, and a little sad. Then, she heard something. She listened closer and realized...that the figure was singing. It wasn't the same note that she sang, and it was so beautiful. So different.  
The figure had a deep voice, and she did sense a masculine aura...so was this figure male? She didn't have time to ask, because there was another light. When she could see again, she saw images in front of her. It was similar to the mural earlier, but these images were moving. She could hear a chirping noise as an image passed by her eyes...she wasn't quite sure what those creatures were, but she liked the noise they made. She saw plants, and she saw more of those white-cloaked people. There were about five of them, and they weren't really doing anything. It was like they were just...living.  
What was that like? Was she doing that now? Just...living?  
Then, she was back in the desert again. She was back at the altar, and once she came to her senses, she noticed that the large metal gate in front of her was opening. Was she...supposed to go through? Was this what that mysterious figure wanted her to do?  
...who was that person anyway? Didn't she figure out it was male...? She shook her head. Her memory was getting no better.

The girl walked through the large hallway the gate had brought her to, wondering where it was leading her to. She saw a light at the end of the hallway, so she knew that it would eventually end. Would more sand be waiting for her?  
Her eyes widened. She saw...there was someone there! She saw someone else! There was another living person here. She...she wasn't alone! Excited, she ran the rest of the way, hoping to catch up to the figure before they vanished.  
Luckily, she was able to get out of the hall...and she saw the figure- no, the boy. It was a boy who wore a red cloak like hers, only his only had a single gold stripe on the bottom, while hers had many more patterns. Did everyone in this world have a cloak like that? What about the people who had white ones? What did the gold patterns mean?  
The boy turned to look at her, and she saw that he had green eyes. She could see brown hair underneath his hood, and he carried a very...happy aura. He seemed like a positive type of person, and they hadn't even exchanged a hello yet.  
She was suddenly worried about her appearance. This boy was the first person that she had met in this world, and her hair was sticking to her forehead, her eyes were bloodshot...what did she look like to him?  
But the boy didn't seem to care. He stared at her like how the white figure had, and he even tilted his head like the figure had. He was the one to break the silence. "Hello! I'm Jake. Who are you? Are you lost too? I was just trying to figure out what to do, maybe you'd like to come with me? What's your name?"

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**Hahahahaha...well...I hope this gets a good reaction. I get the feeling I made this extremely difficult to understand...but as you can tell, I'm trying to write my own take on the game. It'll still follow the basic plotline, but I'm putting in my own elements. Like with the singing. That's supposed to be the little thing that happens when you press O. It always reminds me of singing.**


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